SteveB2

Thailand – no longer a cheap retirement destination?"

After hearing many tales of woe from retired western friends here in Thailand surviving on foreign pensions moaning about how they can now only afford to go out once or twice a week
… whereas 5 years ago all was wine and roses -  I thought I check out to see how much truth there is in these claims.

Thai price Inflation (data from Bloomberg.com)
 thailand inflation 5 years.jpg   37.44K   70 downloads
This has averaged around 5 % during the last 5 years
Prices of Thai goods have thus increased by a factor  1.05 ^5 =  27%

Currency shifts – Caused by a strong Thai Baht (data from xe.com)
 usd versus thai baht.jpg   30.03K   60 downloads
US Dollar buying Thai Baht... Down from 42.16 to 29.45.
Effectively making Thai goods 43% more expensive for Americans

 Pound versus Thai Baht.jpg   31.92K   41 downloads
GB Pound buying Thai Baht… Down from 75.75 to 46.67
Effectively making Thai goods 62% more expensive for Brits.

 euro versus thai baht.jpg   33.77K   23 downloads
EURO buying Thai Baht… Down from 53.70 to 38.80
Effectively making Thai goods 38% more expensive for Europeans

Conclusions
A strong Thai Baht/weak western currencies together with annual 5% inflation work together as a 'double wammy' creating an effective increase in prices for western tourists and retirees as follows:-

For American retirees: - 43 %( currency shift) + 27 %( inflation) = 70% price increase
For British retirees: -   62 %( currency shift) + 27 %( inflation) = 89% price increase
For European retirees: - 38 %( currency shift) + 27 %( inflation) = 65% price increase

So there you have it – For all western tourists and retirees buying Thai Baht with foreign currency, the prices of everything purchased after arrival in Thailand have increased by at least 65% over the last 5 years
...and for the poor Brit pensioner, prices have effectively nearly doubled.